Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/January 2016

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a monthly archive index. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 1

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 1

1. Ancient Chinese idiom "留中不發 (trad) / 留中不发 (simp)"

January 2

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 2

1. Have you ever heard "eight-to-two" used for "eighty-to-twenty" or "four-to-one"?

January 3

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 3

1. Name for insect vegetarian
2. Japanese translation request
3. In what order are digits written within a right-to-left text?
4. How do Japanese people view those who pronounce the particle を as 'wo'?
5. In what order are digits spoken within a left-to-right text?

January 4

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 4

1. Disambiguating "may not"

January 5

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 5

1. Looking for the name of a logical fallacy
2. Interwiki link
3. Former Australian cyclist
4. Should one use a singular or plural in this case? Is it proper to use "its" or "their"?

January 6

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 6

1. Superior script
2. International Phonetic Alphabet

January 7

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 7

1. Derogatory phrase "Mary" maricón
2. Great Britain and UK.
3. Meaning of a Scientific latin name
4. What is a gubbins

January 8

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 8

1. Technical initialism case
2. What languages uses the ASCII alphabet only?
3. Gender neutral terminology for "Man of the Year"/"Woman of the Year"

January 9

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 9

1. Why do Germans call New Year's Eve "Silvester?"
2. Pronunciation question
3. Forts in French
4. Photographic prompts
5. "-ity" vs. "-osity"

January 10

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 10

1. Chicago Manual of Style
2. Asking for IPA pronounciation of French biography article
3. Title of Kipling story

January 11

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 11

1. What is "and it might still.. " called?
2. Homeric greek
3. Arabic "taharrush gamea"
4. In which languages there R consonant which pronounced like in English?

January 12

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 12

1. Geographic distribution of readers of the English Wikipedia

January 13

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 13

1. Does modern Hebrew have any punctuation?
2. Meaning of an obsolete Dutch word 'gom'?
3. Why are there no feminine versions for certain names?
4. Good sources for audio of words

January 14

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 14

1. Gender neutral French given names?
2. Demonstration of Speech Shadowing
3. Hitler's Mein Kampf 2016 reprint

January 15

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 15

1. Is this irony?

January 16

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 16

1. Split subject?

January 17

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 17

1. Analysis of "the ruin of many a poor boy"
2. German name of Oskar Schindler's Enamelware Factory
3. "North, Central America and the Caribbean"

January 18

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 18

1. Hard sentences make bad article
2. Names with two patronymic affixes
3. Russian: is there any word, other than жизнь, that ends with /zn/?
4. Are Libana and Lubna the same person?

January 19

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 19

1. The Female First Name "Knar"
2. American English vs. British English, 1812
3. Why would native speakers of English take a test of English as foreign language?
4. Why do English speakers like to end names with -y?
5. Name that form of deceptive advertising
6. What does this clause mean?

January 20

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 20

1. Stamps
2. receiver, receptor, recipient
3. Term sought
4. List of Ranks:
5. Surname Davies in the UK

January 21

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 21

1. Deciphering a language
2. Is "defrosted" a synonym of "thawed" in the context of freezing and thawing samples?
3. Chinese/Japanese kanji characters on Japanese flag

January 22

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 22

1. Using an ellipsis to mark a parenthentical thought
2. House of Representatives election vs. House of representatives elections
3. "Slepulja/Sləpulja" meaning, etymology in Slavic

January 23

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 23

1. For native English speakers only: Would a native English speaker talk like this?
2. Procedure for writing better
3. Neutral pronoun
4. You had good/better/best answer this question

January 24

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 24

1. Am looking for an English proper noun (a name of person / city - and likewise), whose pronunciation contains the consonant of "the".
2. Is the NHS paying for socks?
3. Japanese language question

January 25

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 25

1. Size for a building
2. English questions

January 26

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 26

1. Portuguese question

January 27

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 27

1. Which do you think reads best?
2. Marsupial cheeks
3. "still are" or "are still"?
4. I am looking for one good word to describe "how many years ago something happened".

January 28

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 28

1. 19th century French forms
2. Name of position sought

January 29

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 29

1. Danish pronunciation

January 30

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 30

1. Need help with an old French book
2. A mistake? (in spelling in a fanfic video on the rise of Insoc from Orwell's 1984)

January 31

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 31

1. Mistakes?
2. Use of square brackets in quotes
3. TindinitisTendinitis/Tendonitis